A digital technique for the evaluation of SSB phase noise of analog/RF signals

Abstract

This paper introduces a digital method for the evaluation of SSB (Single SideBand) phase noise of analog/RF signals. The technique is based on 1-bit signal acquisition with a digital Automated Test Equipment (ATE) and a dedicated postprocessing algorithm that permits to reconstruct the timedomain phase fluctuations of the analog/RF signal from the captured binary vector. SSB phase noise is then obtained by applying an FFT on the reconstructed signal corresponding to phase fluctuations. The proposed method is validated through simulation and results demonstrate an excellent agreement with SSB phase noise obtained using conventional analog method. The proposed method therefore permits to achieve low-cost evaluation of phase noise frequency-domain characteristics for analog/RF signals.